Ago Bay in Shima, Mie Prefecture, is one of the leading places in Japan where pearls can be cultured. The number of pearl farmers has declined in recent years, however, and they are an aging workforce. Shima has been in the spotlight recently, as ...

At the Sea People restaurant in Shima, a coastal hamlet in Mie Prefecture, sea diver Machiyo Yamashita wants a piece of a tourism industry dominated by the cities that sapped her town’s vitality by luring away its youth. “I want to cook and serve ...

A 222-meter-long pearl necklace, certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest, is on display at a Hanshin department store in the city of Osaka. The necklace, which weighs about 20 kg and is comprised of 28,000 pieces of 8 mm pearls, was ...